Evaluation of the ‘Innovative University’ funding initiative

New ideas, knowledge and technologies are emerging every day at universities. But how do these innovations make the transition from theory to practice?

Universities often lack the structures and resources to systematically apply knowledge and technologies for the benefit of the economy, society and their region. The Innovative University funding initiative is designed to overcome precisely these hurdles.

The aim is to support universities of applied sciences and small and medium-sized universities in the research-based transfer of ideas, knowledge and technologies. At the same time, the regional roots of these universities are to be strengthened in order to promote innovation in the economy and society.

Prognos and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) have been commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to conduct an accompanying evaluation of the second funding phase. 

Are the funding initiative's goals being achieved?

The ‘Innovative Universities’ funding initiative started in 2018 and will run for ten years, in two funding rounds, until 2027. The BMBF is providing a total of 550 million euros in funding for the initiative. These are the three core objectives of the programme: 

• Strengthening knowledge and technology transfer: Establishing structures to systematically transfer knowledge and technologies to companies, public institutions and society.
• Promoting regional networking: The aim is to strengthen cooperation with regional companies, municipalities and other actors.
• Developing sustainable transfer structures: The aim is to create long-term and resilient structures that facilitate and institutionalise transfer (e.g. transfer centres, innovation offices).

In order to assess the programme's effectiveness and whether the defined objectives are being achieved, Prognos and the Fraunhofer ISI were commissioned to conduct an accompanying evaluation of the second funding period. While an external evaluation was already carried out during the first funding round, the second evaluation is intended, among other things, to examine the longer-term impact of the funded projects from the first funding round.

The evaluation will comprehensively examine the following aspects: 

• Target achievement control: This examines whether the funding objectives at the programme level have been achieved.
• Impact control: This shows whether the intervention is causal and suitable for achieving the objectives. A distinction must be made here between intended and non-intended effects.
• Economic efficiency control: This checks whether resources have been used efficiently and effectively to achieve an objective in a cost-effective manner.

Our approach

The following methods are used:

• Desk research (evaluation of the monitoring carried out by the project management organisation and of programme- and project-specific indicators)
• Online surveys among project partners and external stakeholders
• Interviews with overall project managers
• Process and cost analysis (for the profitability analysis)
• Funding environment analysis (Fraunhofer ISI)
• Regional economic analysis (Fraunhofer ISI)

Links and downloads

Further information on the evaluation (Fraunhofer ISI website)

Further information on the funding initiative (Innovative University website)

Project team: Jan Reichert, Isabel Schöfl, Helena Seide, Dr Thomas Stehnken

Last update: 19.02.2025